Fear of Falling (Izaya Orihara)

Chapter 16: (Not) Surprising

I had started drifting to sleep as well when I felt Shizuo shift beside me. I didn't think he was awake until he spoke.

"Haru... You're back." I couldn't tell if he was happy or surprised. Maybe he was just making a statement.

I lifted my head off his shoulder. "Yep. Did you fall asleep waiting for me?"

Shizuo didn't say anything, he just kinda sat up, looked at me, and then looked back at the TV. If I didn't know him well by now, I'd have thought he was trying to ignore me. But I could tell he didn't want to say the answer out loud because he knew I already knew what it was.

"I was a little sad you weren't awake to greet me when I came back. You aren't happy for me to come back at all, are you?" I pretended to sigh sadly and watched Shizuo's reaction closely.

His gaze didn't leave the TV, but I knew he was still paying attention to me. He didn't say anything. Of course he didn't. I wasn't really expecting him to.

"...I am." Shizuo finally said.

I froze for a second before smiling. "Really? It took you a while to say it. You've gotta be lying."

"I really did... miss you"

"I was kidding. I know you are, I just wanted to hear you say it." I was beaming at that point. Shizuo had never admitted he cared about me that much before.

Shizuo finally turned to look at me. "Y-you...tch." Awww that cute face! He's blushing too! "It's because I was avoiding you, right? I'm not mad at you." Shizuo said. "I'm just confused."

"Confused? About what?"

Shizuo let out a sigh. "I'm confused about you. You're acting like everything's back to normal. Like I didn't hurt you."

"Well, yeah." I said. What did he expect me to act like? I already said I forgave him, so there was no reason I'd be mad.

"You were like this the last time too." Shizuo frowned.

Last time...? Oh. So that's what this is about. "You're referring to that time back in high school when you saved me from those yellow scarves, right?" I asked.

"Saved you?" Shizuo scoffed. "More like I put you in the hospital with those freaks."

I frowned. "But you did save me..."

"I didn't. I dropped a vending machine on your arm."

I frowned. "That's not exactly what happened. You make it sound so negative..." I recalled the moment.

At some point during middle school, a group of yellow scarves had come after me hoping to get revenge on Shizuo for beating up one of their friends. I refused to call an unsuspecting Shizuo down into their trap, so they decided to hurt me instead for defending him. Back then, I didn't know how to defend myself and I ended up with some nasty bruises.

Shizuo had somehow found out and ran down to defend me. But his anger got the better of him and picked up the nearby vending machine to throw it at the yellow scarves. What he didn't count on was one of the members coming up behind him with a knife and stabbing him in the back right before he let go. I'm sure it didn't bother him much. He'd been through so much more than that. But either way, he messed up his throw and the vending machine hit 3 guys head-on, bounced, and rolled over my arm.

It was a mess. The bone was fractured, though not badly. There was glass everywhere. It took a long time to heal. I was lucky the 3 yellow scarves had taken the most damage.

I didn't see Shizuo's face at that time, but I'm sure his expression was the same as it was when he hurt my arm a few days ago...

"You may have hurt me, but you cared and you were trying to help. It's not your fault. The Yellow Scarves who were hurting me before you stopped them didn't care. The wounds I received from you are different than the ones I got from them."